Knit to be Fit!

Month 3:  The Psychology of Knitting to be Fit!

Well, if one of my two projects had to be sidelined for a few days, (and I know this sounds bad) I am glad it was the knitting and not the fitness!  As everyone knows, there are things that come up that demand attention.  There were some 'emergency' knitting projects I had to get done to satisfy some obligations (I will revisit those in a later post!) and of course, my garden has been clamoring to be planted!  Therefore, I very shamefacedly admit I have little new progress to speak of on my lovely, saucy Herriot dress.  Ahh, but I am making promises for a better week and our relationship should improve steadily over the next few days!  Who knew that a dress could be such an unforgiving mistress, so to speak!  She gives me tortured looks every time I pass by without picking her up.

The good news is that while I have been turbo knitting on totally unrelated projects, planting seeds, digging flower beds, cleaning the corral, running kids here and there about the valley, and generally behaving like a chicken with my head cut off, I have managed to continue upon the road that leads to that next stack of blue jeans on my closet shelf!  I must talk about the corral cleaning for a second.  As I scoop, turn, and deposit the horse leavings in the wheel barrow, I find that the resistance and twist is a very competitive ab routine.  If anyone is interested in taking an corral cleaning ab class, I (in the time honored fashion of Tom Sawyer and his fence painting) would be very willing to, for a fee, let them come to learn and be on hand to coach them through the proper form of scoop, turn, dump!

During the alternate exercise for the week, jumping on the trampoline with the kids, I had to say "Stop! I need to pull up my britches!"  Then, in my head, I was like "YES! I need to pull up my britches!"  Heh heh!  

On the trampoline with the kids.  Moments after  making
the discovery that I needed to pull up my britches!!
(Goofy, I know, but I was that excited!)

So, yes, I continue to shrink.  Yay!

As month three rolls on, the numbers look like this:

Bust:  35

Waist:  29

Hips:  39.5

Thighs:  44

Weight:  181

Eleven official pounds GONE!  I can live with that!

Now, here is something I have been thinking about this week.  And as a disclaimer, I have no psychological training.  As humans, we like to win.  We like to get stuff.  We like to succeed.  We like to see projects through to the end; not quit.  We don't like to be told to do stuff - we'd rather be asked nicely.  It makes us feel good to win, succeed, gain things, and be asked nicely.  Now, I think about the verbage in my head as I talk to myself about health and exercise:  

"You need to QUIT eating ____!"  

"You need to LOSE _____ pounds!"  

"You need to STOP ______ behavior!"  

For one thing, I am not being very polite to myself.  I am giving orders, not asking nicely.  I am also ordering myself to be a quitter!  That is something that many of us learned at a young age was not a good thing to be - quitters never win, right?  You guessed it, next, I am ordering myself to be a loser!  What if I ask myself a question like: 

"Would you like to get a beautiful Herriot dress in gorgeous colors and a couple of sizes smaller than the last dress you bought?"  

How about:  "Would you like to win a longer, more healthy life?"  

Or maybe:  "Hey, you can gain a whole new wardrobe and you already know how!"

Where I am going with this is that the way we talk to ourselves is important to how we see ourselves.  It does help.  And also the wonderful and encouraging things people say to me have been very helpful and inspiring on my journey of the dress!

In the kids' movie "Barnyard", the woman says, at the very end as she is doing her night time routine: "I, Nora Beady, am a precious object and shall treat myself as such." It may sound cliche, but we really do need to give ourselves a little pep talk now and then! 

The Herriot dress, frontal view!
Photo from Juniper Moon Farm blog!

For now, I am off to move a sprinkler and pull some weeds.  Next time, I will have more progress to report on my dress and green smoothies in general.  And how the cats view my gardening habits.  And how my daughter's horse 4-H practices impact my alternate exercise activities.  And, well, the list goes on!

Month Two:  Oh Yeah, We're Doing This Thing!!

As April, or rather, 'month two' of the "Knit to be Fit!" project rolls, a few things are coming clear.  One, this is the most fun I have ever had being healthy!  I feel like I have been working so hard to be unhealthy, and now I am letting my body have what it wants:  good food, lotsa water, and exercise.  I like good food.  Oh, my, when we were on vacation last week in Tennessee, there was good food to be found.  No wasting time and money on bad food when there is so much good food around!  The last day we were there, I ordered a Brewhouse Chicken dish from a pub in Nashville.  It was a seasoned grilled chicken breast with cheesy mashed potatoes (real potatoes with the skins on!) and brown beer gravy!  I ate every bite.  And a bite or two of Max's brownie with ice cream and chocolate sauce.  This was my vacation plan, and it seemed to work:  I am not a big breakfast eater, but I know that it is important to have SOMETHING for breakfast, so I'd get something light like berries or yogurt.  Depending on where we were going to be, I'd plan on a regular lunch or dinner and then a light meal for the other one.  We walked a whole lot, so I wasn't worried about extra exercise.  Of the six nights we were on vacation, I only used a fitness room one time.  Ha!  You should have seen me dancing through Dollywood with the kids!  How can you help it, music everywhere!  (The kids were mostly embarrassed, but finally came around and joined in!) 

On the left, Guy, Max, and Katie on the Lemon Twist.
I learned from the Teacups at Disneyland that
twirling cups and me do not mix!

Dancing through Dollywood, walking, walking, walking, everywhere we went, and being outdoors much of the time made for a very healthy week!  I won't bore you with family vacation stuff, but we also visited the Ruby Falls cave, which, if you are ever in Tennessee, you MUST see!  It is near Chattanooga and very nifty.  An elevator ride 260 feet down into Lookout Mountain starts the journey to the most amazing water fall I have ever seen!  A quarter mile walk gets you 1120 feet below the mountain through truly amazing formations and culminates at the water fall, 145 feet of water spilling down to disperse throughout the cave and eventually find its way to the Tennessee River.  They light it when the walking tour gets to it so we could see it.  I would have loved to have seen it with a full spectrum light shining on it instead of various colors, but it was still beautiful and amazing!  Find out more about Ruby Falls here!  After the walk through the cave, we climbed MANY steps to the observatory on top of the visitor's center so that we could enjoy the view of the Chattanooga Valley and Tennessee River from atop Lookout Mountain.  Definitely good alternative exercise!

So I got a bit sidetracked earlier as I was talking about a few things coming clear as this project progresses.  I do that.  Fortunately, this project is keeping my full attention and I haven't been sidetracked from my focus!  I understand more fully what Kelley told me when I started this project:  "No kind of junk food tastes as good as feeling healthy feels."  Yes, as I progress and feel so much better and more energetic, as I can see and feel the physical changes, I more and more just enjoy feeling good!  Through vacation week, just by paying attention to what I was doing, I still managed to drop two more pounds!  I was so excited!  I am going to get in that dress!  I found these boots:  Old Gringo, in Nashville, and wondered if the dress would like them.  I would, my wallet not so much!  Well, back to reality...  Kelley performed the Wednesday measurements and I was a bit nervous because of vacation, but I was very pleasantly surprised!  I am listing just month #2 measurements for the sake of simplicity:

Bust:  35 

Waist:  29 

Hips:  40 

Thighs:  45.5
Weight:  184   

I can see where my stubborn areas are and I am taking steps to get them moving too.   I can do this!  One of the things that has been so helpful and encouraging to me is the kind souls who come in to the shop and tell me they have read the blog and are cheering me on!  That helps so much to keep the focus, thank you so much to everyone who has offered support!  I have been bringing the partially knit dress to the shop and letting it hang out with the rest of it's yarn at the counter during the day in case anyone would like to see it and feel how wonderful the Herriot yarn feels as material.  Lovely, just lovely!  I am moving into the third color and am loving the look and feel.  I am a bit worried about needing to add more length, but am going to wait until I get up to the armpits and hold it up to myself before I get too panicked about it!  I keep telling myself that I will be so svelte by the time I get the dress done that I will WANT to show off my legs in a short dress!  Ha!

I have not forgotten about the walking group that I have promised to get rolling.  This is going to be so much fun!  When the weather straightens out, we will get moving.  I am excited to do this!  We could even pack up a knitting project and a lunch on a Saturday and knit with our feet dangling off of the rim of the Crimson Trail!  What a view, we had lunch there last year and it was awesome!  

Month one being behind me and month two out in front, I am just as motivated as ever thanks to the support from everyone who works at Knit Unique and from everyone who has either come in to the shop or stopped me on the street to wish me well and offer encouragement.

Month 2 Post 2:  Over a Foot of Fat GONE!

I even surprised myself!  13.5 inches of fat gone!  Funny thing, the scale number stayed the same and all the other numbers went down!

Check it out:  

Bust:  35 (35)

Waist:  28.5 (29)

Hips:  39 (40)

Thighs:  44 (45.5)

Weight:  184 (184)

I am having a blast noticing things like, oh, hip bones I haven't seen in a while and some ribs that I KNEW where there but couldn't see, and wonder of all wonders, calf muscles defined!  (That last one is great so that I will be able to wear some saucy boots with the dress when I get it done!)  I have discovered that if I make a point to use the balls of my feet to land my strides, my calves get exercise as I am using the elliptical and I don't have to go back and do calf exercises.  When you are naturally lazy, you come up with all sorts of short cuts...!  I am loving that I am losing my "muffin tops" over the waist band of my jeans and have started tucking in tee shirts again!  Just in time for summer!  I feel so much better and stronger.  Get this:  when I started exercising, I used a twenty minute pre programmed workout on the elliptical.  I would finish sweating and panting.  I now use the same one, but as a cool down after I warm up with a 30 minute elliptical workout and do a 25 or 45 minute DVD!  I am loving how much better I can play Red Light, Green Light with the kids in the field!

I can take my turn playing Red Light, Green Light and give a kid a run for their money!
Yay for health and fitness!

Another alternate form of exercise this week:  digging a big ol' bed of grass out so that I can plant things like arugula and spinach!  It was a matter of doing the shovel stomp and then kneel and dig with a trowel combination.  So I covered pretty much all the muscle groups in the process!  Oh, and raking is very good for the abs, as is cleaning the corral!  

Here, Pumpkin observes the newly turned, degrassed, and ready for planting veggie bed!  He seemed to think I was a bit less crazy doing this than he did when he was watching me stride on the elliptical!  (I think he just thought I was making one big litter box, I am trying to convince him otherwise!)

With all of the garden prep and having a blast exercising, I have actually made progress on the beautiful Hattie dress as well!  I am still working out my tension issues a bit with the color work, but have stumbled upon a way to help keep things loose!  I am sure this has been done before, you seasoned color work folks out there have probably been doing it for years, but I started to strand OVER my fore finger as a way to create more slack in my color changing!  It seems to be helping with my tension problem.  My pattern rows were getting to be 1/2 to almost 1 stitch off of gauge in places.  Any advice/input in this area would be very appreciated!  I am hoping that blocking the dress in the end will help even some of those out.  

I cannot get over how lovely this yarn is!  So soft.  And beautiful.  And natural.  I once asked an artist friend why I was drawn to black and white or tones of brown in my artwork.  The reply was eye opening for me:  she thought it was because I was raised in northern Montana where the landscapes are predominantly monochromatic most of the year!  The natural colors of Herriot certainly appeal to my sense of my wonderful "monochromatic" Montana landscapes!  (A monochromatic color scheme is one that uses different values, or lights and darks, of the same color).  

I know this is more of an "art shot" of the dress progress, but I couldn't help it,
I thought it was so pretty in the sun!
But you can still see how much I have added since the last photo!

So I will continue as I am, knitting and striding and doing those "buttsercises" (you better believe I had a sore butt when I first started them again!) and planting the garden.  I am also thinking of how much fun it would be to go visit Juniper Moon Farms and see their fiber donors and meet the folks behind this gorgeous yarn!  Hmmm...you just never know...  In the mean time I will content myself with knitting and dreaming:  me, all fit of course, in my Hattie dress and fabulous boots going to visit Juniper Moon Farm.  Ah, a girl can dream, right?

In the beginning.....

The Beautiful Hattie Dress! 

Modeled by lovely Emily of Juniper Moon Farms.



It was a perfect "AHA!" moment!  The moment I saw this gorgeous photo, I was a goner.  I knew I must have it.  And I am not a materialistic person.  Something about this dress spoke to me.  And I don't usually let dresses speak to me!  I grew up in blue jeans and cotton shirts in the wilds of northern Montana clinging to the back of a horse through all sorts of weather and types of terrain.  Not a girlie girl.  So the fact that this dress spoke loudly enough to get my attention was amazing, indeed!  Maybe part of the fact that this permeated my brain was the landscape that lovely Emily is posing in, green and the ruins being reclaimed by nature.  Whatever the reason, the dress would not leave me alone, so I started to speak back.  Big mistake.
Me:  "I can't wear you, maybe 40 pounds ago, but not now." 
Dress:  "Sure you can, you can do anything if you want to bad enough." 
Me:  "Yeah, right, if I lost those 40 pounds..." 
Dress:  "Okay, then, what's stopping you?"  Saucy dress, that!
So it got me thinking...I COULD wear that dress and look great in it!  I could start knitting and by the time I get it done, I would probably BE a medium!  So the idea took root.  Not my fault, it was the dress's idea.  So, the game is afoot!  Yes, I accepted the gauntlet thrown down by this saucy dress!  I am going to rework my lifestyle into a healthy one and do what I have wanted to do for several years now - get rid of those pesky pounds that have been hanging around unwanted but apparently invited - and be liberated from yearning to regain my leaner, stronger, healthier self!

Once I made the decision, I then needed a plan.  I have not had much experience in the way of colorwork knitting.  Soooo, the first person I asked for advice was my mom, who does amazing colorwork!  She advised that I start small.  I took that advice and chose to start with mittens.  I am pretty good with mittens.  Cabled mittens really attract me.  Oh, my, cabled mittens...I have a thing for cabled mittens!  But I digress.  I thumbed through the pattern book that this gorgeous, but saucy, dress is featured in and found an equally lovely, but entirely less saucy, pair of colorwork mittens!  Yay! 

Vera Marguerite Mittens

made in Herriot by Juniper Moon

I loved the photo of these mittens!  They are gorgeous!  I prudently chose similar colors in our Cascade 220 Sport, which is the same size yarn, and a wonderful yarn, but a bit less expensive wool than the beautiful Herriot Alpaca (which I WILL use when it comes time to knit the lovely, saucy dress!).  Good place for me to start.  More advice from my mom:  figure out which color goes where in the chart and clip a snippet of each color, tape them to an index card, and number them accordingly.  Excellent advice.  Now to actually start knitting.  This particular mitten begins with corrugated ribbing.  Corrugated ribbing is the cuff ribbing in which the purl stitches are worked in a different color than the knit stitches, which allows a beautiful, contrasty, variegated material.  When I began my corrugated ribbing, I had help, not just from my mom, but from Shyheart, my daughter's cat.  I think she was attracted to this project because it is similar in color to herself.  She rarely voluntarily graces me with her presence on my lap, but when she saw the beautiful ribbing I was making, she was very curious!

Shyheart admires and gives advice on lovely corrugated ribbing!

(I know that secretly she was only interested because it so closely resembles her own lovely stripes!)

  
Working with the voice of my mom in my ears telling me how to knit one color off of each hand, I gradually became more comfortable with the process and color changed my way through the mitten cuff.  When the time came to start the hand, I was advised, once again by Mom, that the color that you carry in your left hand becomes the dominant color.  I chose to carry the dark colors in my left hand and the light in my right on the first mitten.  Working with stranding challenged my ability to get a proper tension.  I discovered that it is very easy to pull too tightly when carrying the colors and get the material too tight.  I made one cuff and the beginning of the hand that was small enough for my ten year old daughter (unintentionally!) then started again and was able to get a better tension.

In the mean time, while I was not knitting on this mitten, I was working on the OTHER aspect of the project.  ME!  I began to substitute carrots for cookies, strawberries for York Peppermint Patties, and parking at the other end of the lot as opposed to the closest parking place to wherever I was shopping!  I got reaquainted with our elliptical machine.  Katie, who owns the aforementioned cat, took my photo the first day I "strided" so we would have a record of "before"!

Me...before...

The really comical part of the "before" part of the project was Kelley measuring Christy at the store!  I bet the folks over at the Bluebird next door wondered what was so hilarious at the knit shop!  The result, however, was not so funny...

Bust: 37

Waist: 34

Hips: 41

Thighs: 48

Weight: 192

Height: 5'9.5"

I measure for about a size large to extra large for the beautiful Hattie dress.  What I am going to knit, after I finish the practice mittens, is a size medium!  Kelley has agreed to take on the task of giving credence to the information by measuring and recording what the scale says every Wednesday.

I am enjoying my renewed friendship with the elliptical machine!  It is quite dreamy.  I am looking forward to green air days and warmer weather so I can take walks outside!  However, being ski season, I have been able to spend quite a bit of time at Beaver Mountain on the weekend and that has been a wonderful way to get some sun and fresh air and a bit of exercise in the great outdoors.  But for now, I have begun in the garage with the elliptical and a captive audience:

L-R:  Hiss, Pumpkin (Mr. P.), and Shyheart

My audience and cheering section as I sweat my way through one of the workouts on the elliptical machine! 

What they are really thinking, I am sure, is that tree climbing is much better exercise!

   
...oh, and push ups, I am doing push ups too, we can't wear that gorgeous dress and have flabby arms!  Dress wouldn't like it!

Top view.  Modeled by Farol!

I have been in contact with Susan at Juniper Moon Farms and she is excited about my project and very supportive of my healthy lifestyle goals.  I have also been in contact with Knitting Fever, who represents JMF as a vendor and they have been very supportive as well.  I am excited to finally be back on the road to a sensible, healthy lifestyle and am so grateful for the support of Kelley and everyone at Knit Unique.  It is wonderful!  More excitement:  I finished the first mitten!



Palm view.

After I finished the first mitten and brought it in to show off, Farol gave me some great advice on how to avoid working in large numbers of ends!  I will gather the information and perhaps a video or photos and add them to the next post, when hopefully Kelley's measuring tape is more kind!

 

........and we progress!  Post number 2 March 6, 2013!

A dress's worth of gorgeous Herriot yarn!

100% Baby Alpaca 100g, 219y, 4.75 spi on US #7

  2 #4 Walnut, 2 #8 Sycamore, 2 #6 Riverbirch, 3 #9 Travertine, 2 #1 Talc

As this project gets rolling and gathers momentum, I am getting more excited and caught up in the swing of it!  Though I have encountered a few road blocks in the last few days (a ski crash at Beaver Mountain that left my neck screaming, which seriously interfered with my knitting, for one...) I am moving forward and I am tremendously proud to report that Kelley's measuring tape was kind this morning!  (...I added last weeks measurements in ( ) just for comparison...)

Bust: 36.5  (37)

Waist:  33  (34)

Hips:  41  (41)

Thighs:  47  (48)

Weight:  190  (192)

Woo-Hoo!  I was so happy to see that my theory of sensible living is indeed paying off!  No gym membership involved here, folks!  I have been using the elliptical machine, stretching, walking, and (sort of) skiing.  As an aside, I have to make a bit of a testimonial here regarding the importance of wearing a helmet when you ski.  I was innocently exiting the lift and my sweet daughter inadvertently skied over the tips of my skis.  It was like a tree falling in the forest, and yes, in this case, it was heard!  A one point landing on my shoulder and the helmet slam to the snow, which is like granite right now, and every one of the muscles in my neck took a hit.  So a very low speed accident, but I felt like the helmet saved me from being knocked out and having a very skinned up face.  My daughter felt terrible, but it was an accident and also a learning experience.  Ski OUT before you turn!  A silver lining:  I experienced the most amazing massage yesterday.... 

I teamed up with Farol, my sister in arms, so to speak, here at Knit Unique to bring you some awesome stretches and yoga moves that target areas that we knitters need to relax regularly so that we are better able to serve our inner knitter.  Unfortunately, however, I had sound difficulties on my video and we need to reshoot.  Big frowny face.  Look for "Yoga for Knitters with Farol"  in next week's post! 

As far as what I am eating, I am just eating the way we all know we need to.  No counting calories and fat grams, just using common sense.  And yes, I confess, I had the Beaver Mountain Cafe cheeseburger and was it ever delish!  So were the tater tots I scavenged from the kids.  Heh heh.  And of course it is Girl Scout Cookie season and I can't turn down a thin mint to save myself!  I just didn't eat the whole box!

While my knitting has been sort of on hold while my neck recovers, I have worked on the second mitten.  This time, I am carrying the lighter colored yarns in my left hand, thus making the dominant colors the lighter colors.

You can begin to see, even with the small amount that I have knitted on the second mitten, that the lighter colors will be more prominent in this mitten.  Magic!  Another bit of magic that makes color work even more awesome is the magical jogless join.  This bit of magic occurs when you start a new round and don't want to see the "jog" that happens as you move up to the next round.  (I also got this tasty morsel of knitting information from Farol, she is a well of knowledge!)


When you start the second round AFTER you have changed colors, simply:

...pick up the right leg of the first stitch of the row below and put it up by the first stitch you will knit...



...and knit those two stitches together!

This gives you the smooth transition to the next row!

As I have grown more comfortable with knitting off of both hands, I have been able to start working in the new yarn colors as I go and thus have been avoiding having to go back and weave in quite so many ends!  The theory is that you start picking up the new color when you are a couple of inches from the end of the round when you will need to add it.  By picking it up the same way you do when you "carry your floats" (oh my!  I am starting to SOUND like I know what I am doing!) by the time you need to add your new color, it will already by worked in!  More magic!  On the same note, work in the end of the "old" color as you continue on the round.  I, for one, have not figured out how to work in TWO new colors per round yet...

As far as the gorgeous, saucy Hattie dress goes, I am still under the spell of the dress and am bringing home my yarn today!  So excited!  I am hoping I will feel confident enough after I finish the second mitten that I will be able to dive right in to the dress project! 

Don't forget, next week, we will do Yoga for Knitters!  You are going to love the simple, easy, but very effective stretches we have to show you!  And I will leave you with a quote from Kelley:  "There is no junk food that tastes as good as feeling good feels!' 

....Post #3..."The Learning Curve"! 

Ladies and gentlemen, I am going to give you the moral of the story first today!  READ YOUR PATTERN!  That said, I will tell you how I once again came to that conclusion!  I thought I would sit down this morning and do my gauge swatch.  Bleh.  No one I have ever talked to has said they loved to do gauge swatches.  I first checked the gauge that the pattern called for.  Exciting! thinks I!  I get to set needles to Alpaca!  Gauge:  24 sts and 22 rounds = 4"/10cm...  Oh, I can figure that!  Six stitches per inch on a size US 5 needle.  I got started.  I knit up a nice stockinette (yes, you experienced color work knitters will be nodding your heads knowingly right about here) and Rita helped me check the gauge.  On the needles, I had a solid 4.5 stitches.  Rita advised to take the needle out and measure again.  I closed my eyes briefly and pulled out the needles.  Good advice.  The needle apparently pulls the stitches apart slightly.  Had I knitted a longer swatch, I probably wouldn't have needed to pull the needles.  With no needle in the swatch, we measured 5 stitches per inch.  Rita recommended I go down to a size 3.  I slipped the needle back into the loops of the swatch and prepared to knit on!  I, right about then, remembered some good knitting advice that Rita gave me years ago.  Simple, but saves a ton of time.  When you pick up stitches and go to knit and the stitches are wrong leg forward on the needles, simply knit them through the back loop to save yourself turning them around!

When you come to a stitch and it is "wrong leg forward",
simply knit it through the back loop to avoid the need to take it off and turn it around first!

   

And so, moving forward with the size three needles, I was careful to right off knit three purl bumps so I could tell where I changed needle sizes and what size I changed to.  Had I changed to a size four, it would have been four purl bumps!  (Thank you Farol for that particular idea!)  Upon measuring the next part of the swatch, I discovered I still had five stitches per inch.  Grrrrr.  I went back to the drawing board.  Er...knitting chair....  I dropped to a size two.  Scary.  Still couldn't get 6 spi.  Eventually, I discovered that the way I was knitting with my stitches safely in from the tips of my needles, was stretching the yarn.  By knitting with my stitches closer to the tips of my needles and keeping my yarn finger in closer, I was able to get better tension and more consistent stitches.  Yay!  About that time I actually took a good long look at the pattern.  Where it talks about getting the gauge, it clearly stated ....in stranded knitting in the round!  Yes, Rita informed me, I MUST do my gauge swatch in the round.  In color stranding.  This was the point that I was very grateful that she did not wash my mouth out with soap!  To make a very long story short, I was able to get gauge of six sts per inch on a size US3 working a few rows of the color stranding chart.  For these reasons, I conclude that one must read, read, read the pattern before casting on one stitch, and take the time to check the gauge!

In other news,  "the mitten" is progressing as the knitters neck heals!  The photo shows a side by side of the two mittens, one with the dark yarns being dominant, the other with the light colors being dominant.  Um, the lighter mitten sort of has some 'customization' in the colors...oops!  But you get the general idea!

The yarn held in the left hand is the dominant yarn,
you can see which way each mitten was knit!

click here for more info on this book!

As I prepare FINALLY! to begin work on the beautiful (but saucy) Hattie dress, I am happy to report that the "me" portion of the project is coming along beautifully!  I have ordered, and just received from good ol' Amazon, the book "Healthy at Every Size" by Linda Bacon (Thank you Laurie for the recommend!) and am looking forward to delving in.

Which brings us to the next item on the agenda!  How the health and fitness part of the program is coming along!  As I continue to have daily sessions with my elliptical machine and make healthy food choices, I am starting to see the results I desire!  I have recently discovered green smoothies.  I don't know how they have escaped me all these years, but I am fixing to try 'em out!  I can't wait!  In addition to having more energy (yes, we all know that this is a side benefit!) and feeling so much better, the measuring tape and scale are doing their part!  I have listed the previous results in ( ) again with the oldest on the right:

Bust:  36.5 (36.5, 37)

Waist:  33 (33, 34)

Hips:  40.75 (41, 41)

Thighs:  46 (47, 48)

Weight:  188 (190, 192)

I have also dusted off my old tried and true "Slim in 6" dvd's.  It has probably the best quick ab routine I have used as well as a good stretching routine and the basic 20 minute workout is very good without killing you off!  I have been having fun feeling how much stronger and wonderful I feel!  Yay!

Unfortunately, my feline audience has gone from curious to bored as they tolerate my presence in their territory as I use the strider:

...semi curious....

Curious....

...losing interest....

...and now they're bored...

And speaking of misfortune, we are STILL experiencing technical difficulties on the "Yoga for Knitters" with Farol.  Darn it, we will get it to you soon!  I know you are going to love it!

Knit to be Fit post #4  IT'S MOVING DAY!

...Oh yes, it is moving day because I moved into a pair of jeans that I moved out of some time ago!  There is no feeling quite like the one you get when you move back in to those clothes that have been lounging around in the closet waiting, mocking you with their slenderness.  Now on to the NEXT stack!  This week's measurements bowled me over!  The first few inches and first five pounds are GONE!  Check it out:

Bust:  36 (36.5, 36.5, 37)

Waist:  31 (33, 33, 34)

Hips:  40 (40.75, 41, 41)

Thighs:  45.5 (46, 47, 48)

Weight:  187 (188, 190, 192)

Now I am starting to fantasize about the boots I am going to wear with the beautiful, saucy Hattie dress when I get it done!  They will need to be saucy boots, what do you think of these?

Are these boots saucy enough for the Hattie dress?  Not sure yet...

The fact is, I have BEGUN THE HATTIE DRESS!  I was so excited to finally get rolling!  The mittens are done, you can see them in the shop at the front counter.  The gauge battle has been waged and won.  Stitches have been cast on for a size medium and the ribbing is done.  Oh yeah, it is begun!  So I really do need to start thinking about boots.

Ribbing done, it is all dress from here!



This Herriot yarn is incredible.  So soft and wonderful to work with.  I cannot say how fabulous it is to have my hands in it.  If any of you ladies who have been thinking about doing this dress with me have had more thoughts on it, I would love to hear from you and we could set up a weekly or even bi-weekly time to get together and compare notes, stitches, progress, and techniques.  I would also love to set up a walking group now that the weather is (possibly?) turning to spring!  Ooo, and I get excited about Logan Canyon trails as the weather warms and dries out, too!  If any of these ideas appeal, please let me know:  knitunique@gmail.com attention Christy.

I have hit a snag in my fitness regime as my elliptical is on the fritz.  Grrrr!  So I have been doing my oldy but goody Slim in 6 DVD.  Oh, my, I forgot how good of a workout you can get in twenty five minutes!  Whew!  I credit that with the waist result for the week!   One thing I really like about this program is the attention to proper form so that you don't injure yourself.  There is also a great stretching routine that feels sooo good!  If you would like more information, please Click here.  I am not trying to sell the thing, but it is a good workout.  One thing I have been doing that I have not done in the past is just relaxing and having fun with this health/fitness life improvement thing I am doing.  In the past, I have done this or that trendy "diet" and just have became frustrated and discouraged.  I am the person who if I am told I can't have it or can't do it, I want all of it and right now!  So I have not told myself I can't have that cookie.  I just enjoy it and move on.  I enjoy a juicy cheeseburger.  Just not twice a day!  I am not counting calories, I do not consider myself "on a diet".  I am not paying gym fees.  I have a good pair of shoes and a road and (hopefully soon again!) an elliptical machine.  I have discovered green smoothies.  Oh my.  The kids make pretty cool faces when they see me drink them, but they are so refreshing after exercise!  I have had a ball discovering new ways to use my blender! 

This one is strawberry, banana,
yogurt, spinach, arugula, mint,
flax, whey protein powder, and ice!

Amazingly easy to make and quite tasty, some look like swampy water, some look like the photo, but they taste delightful and are very filling and a great way to get those greens! 

In addition to out of the ordinary yummy stuff to eat, I have been able to do some out of the ordinary physical activities!  One of these was going out to help our friends at Notlwonk Springs Farm shear their sheep!  The sheep were brought in for their shearing and after they were de-wooled, my job was to turn them over and hold them so that they could get their hooves trimmed and their vaccinations so that they can remain healthy.  Very good total body workout, turning sheep over!  My experiences turning calves over as a kid on our Montana ranch served me well that day!  However, as good a total body workout holding the sheep for their hooves and shots was, it in no way compared to the total body workout that Derek the shearer got as he turned over, clipped, turned, clipped, and maneuvered each sheep in turn!  Some of these sheep are huge and they were all very pregnant.  You could see the outlines of the lambs as the sheep tummies were shorn.  Derek was very gentle with them and made sure the momma sheep had the best shearing experience he could. 

Derek demonstrates an alternative total body workout!

      

Katie, my daughter, got in on the action, holding an early lamb while his mother donated her wool.

  

As the weather in Cache Valley warms up and the red air days dwindle, it is fun to spend more time outdoors.  I am looking forward to planting my garden and hiking in Logan Canyon.  For now, I walk the roads around our home, and as our horses are fed about 1/4 of a mile from our house, I enjoy splashing down the field to feed.  Yes, splashing is a great form of exercise and also very fun!  Splashing contests with the kids are a blast!  They are always surprised at how far their mom can splash!  And by the time we get back to the house, I am sure we have covered more than the 1/2 mile round trip as well as having a good happy going!

The beautiful walk to feed the horses earlier this week.

So enjoy the spring weather we are having, and remember, you don't need anything fancy to get some exercise each day!  Have fun with it!  Let me know if you would like to start a fiber friends walking group.  And also remember, I am not a fitness or nutrition professional!  If you have concerns, please consult someone who is!  But whatever you do, keep those fibers moving through your fingers! 

Knit to be Fit! post #5  

"Not to be mean or anything, Mom, but..."



...so said Max, my twelve year old son as he stands with the beginnings of my dress in his hands!  "Not to be mean or anything, Mom, but you are NEVER going to fit into that!"  I burst into...laughter!  The saucy Hattie dress is being knitted on 24" circular needles and Max just can't fathom how his mother's backside will ever squeeze into that circle!  Well, it won't, yet, but in a few months, when the two projects meet in the middle, it will!  I explained to Max that as the material flows away from the needles, it will be able to expand.  He remains quizzical, but is willing to humor me. 

Hattie dress progress!!  Starting to look saucy!

 Oooo, I don't want to do anything else!!  The Herriot yarn is so delightful in my hands!  I am starting to see the patterning now and it is so exciting to see it unfold!  I am very glad that I took the time in the beginning to get to know the method of operations of colorwork BEFORE I began the dress.  Had I not, I would have had my stranding so tight, I never would be able to squeeze into the dress!  Maybe my daughter's American Girl doll would have enjoyed it. 

While I am enjoying knitting the beautiful saucy Hattie dress, I am coveting other patterns in the Herriot book.  For instance, I MUST make the tam that matches the mittens:

Photo by JMF.  I MUST make it, I MUST!



I fear I have joined the ranks of the fanatic color work knitters!  I will most likely work my way through most of the patterns in the book.  But, I am sidetracked. 

Last week, my elliptical machine was on the blink.  Very distressing.  While I waited for the heroic repairman to come take a look, I proceeded with my exercise DVD.  I revisited some great strengthening moves and worked on proper form for these moves.  Squats, lunges, lifts, they all require form, form, form so one doesn't injure ones self.  Gotta keep that knee from going out over the toe, keep your stomach tight, core strong, shoulders straight.  My goodness, it is nice to be getting a stronger core again!  When the repairman did come, he discovered that the resistance motor of the elliptical had been installed incorrectly at the factory, installed a new one correctly and went on his way, leaving a very thankful and totally blissed out elliptical owner in his wake!  The next night after I completely lost track of time as it strided along, my daughter informed me when I finally came back to earth that I had been out there "...like an HOUR!"  I realized that I had indeed been out there an hour.  The cats were bored out of their minds. 

For my efforts, though, combined with some good food through the week (and um, some not so good food), I once again was able to see some fantastic results!

Bust:  35.25 (36, 36.5, 36.5 37)

Waist:  30.125 (31, 33, 33, 34)

Hips:  40, (40, 40.75, 41, 41)

Thighs:  45.5 (45.5, 46, 47, 48)

Weight:  186 (187, 188, 190, 192) 







I have been enjoying some creative green smoothies,
they are wonderful after exercise!
  Check out The Green Smoothie Girl,
 there is some great stuff there!
(photo from GSG website)

The author gives an inspiring speech
in this video!

As the weather warms and the snow recedes (or has receded, as the case may be) I look longingly outdoors and think about my stint as a runner.  I may not, but I think about it from time to time.  And I watch runners as I drive along the road.  And I look at their running form.  And sometimes I cringe.  From experience, I know that one of the best ways to take out a knee is a stride reaching far in front of you, striking on your heel.  The calf and butt were designed to take the shock from the foot and absorb it so that the joints don't suffer.  Shorter strides, striking on the fore- or mid- foot allows those shock absorbers to do their job. I read "Born to Run" (not Springsteen's lyrics, though there is some good stuff there too!) a couple of years ago and am thinking I need to re-read it.  An excerpt:

“That was the real secret of the Tarahumara: they'd never forgotten what it felt like to love running. They remembered that running was mankind's first fine art, our original act of inspired creation. Way before we were scratching pictures on caves or beating rhythms on hollow trees, we were perfecting the art of combining our breath and mind and muscles into fluid self-propulsion over wild terrain. And when our ancestors finally did make their first cave paintings, what were the first designs? A downward slash, lightning bolts through the bottom and middle--behold, the Running Man.
Distance running was revered because it was indispensable; it was the way we survived and thrived and spread across the planet. You ran to eat and to avoid being eaten; you ran to find a mate and impress her, and with her you ran off to start a new life together. You had to love running, or you wouldn't live to love anything else. And like everything else we over--everything we sentimentally call our 'passions' and 'desires' it's really an encoded ancestral necessity. We were born to run; we were born because we run. We're all Running People, as the Tarahumara have always known.”
―    Christopher McDougall, Born to Run

In fact, I may take that book on the plane on Sunday.  Yes, I am gearing up to go on spring break with the family!  So exciting!  We are going to tour Tennessee.  Never been that far east.  Hmmm, I have heard about a knit shop in Knoxville, I will have to check it out!  Hope to hike in the Great Smokey Mountain National Park and we will check out Dollywood.  I hear there is an awesome glassblower at Dollywood and some great rides for the kids.  Oh, and the food!  Looking forward to sampling some new food, and I understand that Tennessee is the only place to try a Mint Julep.  So, I won't be updating the blog next week, but I will be full of news the following week! 

There has been a great amount of interest in the Fiber Fiends walking group and we will get rolling with that after spring break.  I will send out an email or call all interested parties.

Happy spring, everyone, see you in two weeks!